. we are live working furiously to put out a two alarm blaze, we will tell you why it is so difficult. and a fire sent a woman running in mill valley. washington takes a hard look at problems found in cemeteries found across the country. how many new smokers are lighting up every year. ktvu channel 2 morning news continues.

. temperatures have cooled off and highs today sunshine coast inland and bay low 70s. here is sal. traffic is moving along well, northbound 280 getting to highway 17. traffic is looking good, we have a crash blocking two left lanes, let's go back to the desk. in overnight news, right now big news from berkeley as we speak. firefighters are still putting out hot spots look at the pictures at a berkeley

apartment house. it started 4:15 on dwight way not far from the cal campus. we have lorraine blanco as we do our team coverage, lorraine, what is the latest? >> reporter: well it has been a couple of hours at this point. it is still very smokey out here and it's becoming a little bit harder to breathe. the deputy chief says it has not been an easy fight for them because it is an old building. you can see the huge ladder where they are fighting the fire from the top. firefighters tell us when they got here the building was fully engulfed and quickly went to a two-alarm fire. this is what it looked like from the ground at 4:00 a.m. everyone in the six apartment building got out safely but at one point it did get dicey. >> we tried to engage

firefighting operations but with so much fire we were driven out of the building. the fire made it out of the roof. we actually had a third story floor collapse and that's when we decided decided to evacuate and go defensively. they have been able to get it to one structure but as a precaution they have evacuated many nearby buildings. we also have tara moriarty live on the other side of this fire and she has reaction from tara. tara? >> reporter: a lot of the evacuees we are talking to are actually students from berkeley and you can see some of them milling in the street right in front of these trucks and they are giving's evacuees some hot

cocoa as they wait and find a place to stay. now they woke up and saw flames. they are next to the apartment building which is a six unit building, no word on how many tenants. there are 3 or 4 buildings next door. they grabbed their laptops, their cell phones and headed outside in their pajama jams. >> i looked outside and it was completely orange and i felt a little heat, i got out of bed to the my classes and there were firefighters everywhere and after that i got everybody up. >> reporter: berkeley police also assisted in getting neighbors out of their respective apartments and the fire is still active and it is nearly two hours it has been

going. there were scary moments when the floor collapsed and any time that happens where floors collapse and fires shoot through the roof the entire building is in danger of collapses. no injuries for firefighters or any of the evacuees so that is the good news. live from berkeley, i am tara moriarty, ktvu channel 2 morning news. there was an overnight fire in the north bay. it started at a home in heavenly way. that trigger, triggered an alarm inside the house. she could not take much with her. a closet filled with clothes, they saw flames coming from the bottom floor and it took crews just about ten minutes to put out the two-alarm fire and the cause of that is still under investigation. time right now 6:05

searching for a gunman who killed two people. it happened later on oh touro court. they found two young men on the street who had been shot several times and later died. one victim is a 24-year-old from fairfield and the other is an 18-year-old from east palo alto. witnesses saw an african- american man with long dreadlocks running from the scene. it is believed he drove away in a gold colored mercedes. new developments in a case of mistakes at military cemeteries. congress takes a closer look at the scandal and claudine wong is at the pre-sid dear and there are mistakes there.

>> reporter: this is san francisco and the gates just opened moments ago. 48 graves had the wrong headstone three were unmarked and they had similar problems at the golden gate bridge cemetery. at this point it is still unclear if there are more graves still undiscovered. it is all part of an audit going on which started back in 2010 at the arlington cemetery after mistakes were found there. there were problems at potential cemeteries and at the golden gate they found 18 unmarked and almost 51 here. we spoke to the director of the cemetery and at the time he was confident things were in order at these cemeteries because they were run by the army and not by the vet rent's administration but back in 2010

he said this... >> it will not happen here. we will not make the mistakes that will or are alleged to have been made at arlington. >> reporter: but there are problems here like the ones in arlington. right now officials are blaming sloppy work involving contractors and if you look at the graves, 249 is not a large number but there is little consolation to the families affected. we are talking about the first phase, they audited several and they are considered to be at high risk for error. i did put a call to veteran officials and we are still waiting to get a call back from them and we will keep you updated. claudine wong ktvu channel 2 morning news.

they are looking into the suspected norovirus. in santa rosa they tell the press democrat there have been several cases of flu-like systems. they have been confirmed to have more more and almost three dozen people have become sick with norovirus. every day in the u.s. more than 3800 people under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette. coming up what the government says is to blame for the increasing number of kids taking up the habit. time now 6:09 sal is back and i know you are watching contra coster county. >> yes, coming up from antioch, you can see some stop-and-go traffic but a crash on west 80 at san pablo avenue.

it has not caused a big traffic jam. as we move to the other part of the east bay, there was a stalled vehicle on the san mateo bridge but it's on the shoulder. as we look at south bay, we are off to a nice start, nothing major, freeways 101, 217 likewise for 680. let's go to the bay bridge, a little bit of a backup and you can see backup is for about a 10 minute delay and of course we continue to fight the fire in berkeley. you can see the firefighting effort continues. dwight way is closed and don't try to use dwight way. use other streets instead. let's go to steve. cold in the morning, lots of 30s and 40s, we will end up

with 60s and 70s and it will be sunny for everybody, nice to warm. there is a him the of an easterly breeze so that helps. temperatures will be upper 60s but again a cold morning and much calmer conditions with a light breeze. outside sonoma, bethel island stanford down to 34, vallejo and venetia a chilly 38, fairfield napa santa rosa 32. i don't take out any taxes. i will pay in sunshine. i did see 40 in cole valley, that is the coolest districts. a little northeast in oakland, southeast san jose, it's not strong but directions are easterly which is an offshore breeze, we will have some

missing data, today everything stays to the north, showing signs it may be dipping next week. we'll see if it makes it this far. sunny and mild to warm, afternoon highs upper 60s to lower 70s, 70 in brentwood. low 70s down to gilroy los gatos, santa cruz, it will be close for others, redwood city 68. a cool down begins on saturday, could have some rain to the north into monday. for the second time in months police shoot and kill a pit bull in pacifica, the latest events that led to this shooting is coming up. and more on the tsunami and

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( clears throat ) sorry. when it's on your mind, it's on ebay. . welcome back, our top story, take a look, right now they are putting out a huge fire at a berkeley apartment building. you can see the flames are out but a huge response as you can see in the surrounding area. it started at 4:15 this morning, it is on dwight way near telegraph avenue. it started not far from

people's park and many have been evacuated at a precaution. they are most likely out of their homes at this point but so far that is the good news. the red cross is on its way helping those who are out of their homes. stay with ktvu channel 2 morning news for morning coverage. we have two crews one talking to fire investigators and one talking to people who saw the flames and ran from the building so stay with us and we will continue to update the story. they are helping japan as they rebuild their power industry. last year the tsunami heavily damaged power plants and the demand for alternative energy solutions in japan is very high because the crisis shook the public's trust in nuclear power.

>> they are calling on kids to stop the habit allison? >> reporter: these are some pictures from the campaign for tobacco free kids showing cigarettes for sale next to gum and candy strategical clay locating marketing where young children are exposed to them is a problem. california has cut funding for tobacco control programs. >> over the last few years they have cut funding by 36%. it is no surprise they have overwhelmed cut backs in the state programs. >> they recently gave

california an f-what the report says aboutp mental cigarettes and kids, we will have that during my next update in about an hour, allison burns ktvu channel 2 morning news. they are clearing the way to overhaul federal highway programs. they consider the legislation a priority. they view it as a way to create jobs and proof to the public they can work together to help the economy but the bill also includes votes on a strain of many amendments many of them highlighting construction. for the first time in as many months, a police officer shot and killed police. a neighbor called police after a neighbor's pit bull ran into her house and attacked her dog.

the police officer shot the dog after the dog turned on him. you may recall an officer shot and killed another pit bull after it attacked its own they are who was pregnant. the woman died in that attack. jury selection in san francisco sheriff ross mirkarimi domestic violence case. in the mean team they show a former girlfriend claims it was hard enough to leave a small bruise. now flores said sheriff ross mirkarimi apologized when he realized he hurt her. pack over to sat, what are you keeping an 0 eye on now? >> well we are getting closer

to the peak of the commute and these next two hours are the peak of the commute and the metering looks are over no major problems getting into san francisco. on 880 it is still not bad if you want to get ahead of the crowd. northbound looks good from san leandro to oakland all the way up. we have a nice looking start with no major problems or slow downs. i want to move the maps, yesterday this was clear to the shoulder but you see some on the right side. there was not anything hardly at all. easterly breeze, very little, with an east wind, oakland

everybody will be in on the sunshine. you don't have to worry about fog, low 30s for many, 40s, wide range of temperatures mostly between 40 and 49. hayward 49 degrees and that system, just like that it is gone. sunny and nice today. cold morning, so bundle up. calm conditions, easterly or northerly breeze, 60s and very low 70s. temperatures will level off and it will be cooler on saturday, turning cloudy to mostly cloudy on sunday and monday to the north. now the confusion started yes. he said quote, we are looking at all of our locations and

trying to see where we have opportunities to combine offices. he was only referring to making banks more efficient. earth was hit with the biggest solar flair in five years. a tell having crew ended unsafing a woman from her stroke. what interesting clue led them to her. it is getting more crowded on the mcarthur maze, we will tell you more about the traffic and weather coming up. stay with us. 0

. good morning traffic is moving along well at the bay bridge toll plaza, no problems once you get onto the bridge. new report on traffic death shows speeding is still a serious problem. more than 10,000 people died in 2010. the number of deaths involving drunk driving or people who

were not wearing seat belts that has actually gone down and speed fatality have gone up. well a television crew following the hit show alcatraz helped to save a stroke victim in san francisco. now the television crew was filmed at bay street are recreating a movie called bullet when they noticed a car parked and traced the car's owner back to a house when they found a woman who just suffered a stroke. san francisco police officers on the set rushed in and called an ambulance. the rescue effort would not

have been possible if that crew were not there. you can catch this scene on the season 15 nailly monday march 26, just look for the links on the front pole. a powerful pulse from the sun hit the earth. it was the largest solar flair which could affect our communications. some rerouted flights towards the south to avoid any gps or radio interference but the people most at risk are the astronauts on board the radio space station. the astronauts will have a spectacular view of the area which is caused by solar particles. it is getting a lot of

attention why everybody is warning boaters to stay away. a two-alarm fire in berkeley, we will tell you why it has been so difficult for firefighters to contain. away area company is visiting the new york stock exchange. we will tell you about that coming up. it's getting crowded at toyota's #1 for everyone sales event. why? 'cause people know toyota's the best. toyota has the most fuel-efficient and longest lasting vehicles of any full-line automaker. plus, every new toyota comes with the peace-of-mind of toyota care, a complimentary maintenance plan with roadside assistance. so from camry to tundra, this is your chance to save big on our most popular models. with the incredible deals you'll find... ...you're gonna want to hurry in for this one. ♪

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when it's on your mind, it's on ebay. . there it is right on time from the new york stock exchange, santa clara based company, actually a spinoff from the printing company. they are visiting new york this morning and we are welcoming them and jobless claims may have an impact on the market. dow jones industrial average

are headed higher and more business news is coming up. we will say good morning to you ktvu channel 2 morning news, it is march 8th thursday i am dave clark. coming up, time now 6:30, big news coming in from berkeley, we have been on this for the past two hours, firefighters are putting out hot spots at a berkeley apartment house. it's not far from the cal campus, ktvu channel 2 morning news was the first to show you. what is the latest lorraine, what do you know? >> we have been out here for two hours and the smoke has not subsided too much. you can see a big cloud of black smoke pouring out of that three story apartment building. here is a live look, you can see a lot of smoke and every once in a while you will also

see some flames. it is still an active fire and it is quite a fight. when we arrived closer to 6:00 a.m., it quickly became a two- alarm fire. there are about 3 dozen firefighters originally fighting from the inside and it became too dangerous. good thing it became too dangerous. it made it difficult to fight the fire. and we are still engaged. we also had to evacuate a jay san -- adjacent buildings. >> so far firefighters have been able to contain those flames to just one, three story structure and right now there is no information on a possible cause. number one right now is getting this fire completely contained.

reporting live, lorraine blanco ktvu channel 2 morning news. >> we have knew video from the scene from a different angle. our crews showed it from the backside of the building and you can see how it is completely burned out. it looks like it may collapse fall downy minute. the firefighters are quite busy and this is a damaged properly. that is from huge fires they have been battling for several hours since 4:15 we will continue to cover this story and tara moriarty is also there and she is also checking on the many people who have lost their homes in this fire this morning. this is a people story as well. tara moriarty will have a live report coming from berkeley at

6:45. a man was left bleeding in the street after a brutal stabbing. a stranger stopped, picked him up to the side of the road until an ambulance arrived. we do not know his condition at this point this morning. earlier this morning a man was found inside a home shot with a rifle. the shooting happened near east 22nd street. the man died on the way to the hospital apple tell us the two people were the only ones inside that apartment. new developments in a scandal of missmarked graves. claudine wong is there with the mistakes found there.

>> reporter: this is an ongoing issue, 1.5 million graves are audited so far. 1.6 million to go and here at the national cemetery, 51 graves are affected to have problems and problems like these would be disturbing but you candies count the -- can't discount the fact that they are military cemeteries. talk about the dignity, mistakes like these are going to have people upset. the hearing will take place at 10:30 our time and it is meant to keep congress and the members of the subcommittee up to date on how this could have happened and how big the problem really is. it is all part of an audit still going on. at the arlington sent rather there were also problems of missing documents and lack of

oversight. it is that audit that led to mistakes at the golden gate cemetery in san bruno. again, the question is point, have the problems been fixed and how many more are out there? that will be the subject of today's commission meeting claudine wong ktvu channel 2 morning news. occupied protesters want the city of oakland to resince the -- rescind the stay a way order. more than 400 arrests were made. occupied oakland said activists have been ordered to stay away from city hall. they claim is violates their free speech rights. oakland city attorney's office is suing a man from elk

grove for vandalism during an occupied demonstration last november. caesar mcguire is accused of using a metal chair to smash out windows in a police building. taxpayers should not be stuck with the bill for those repairs. they are seeking more than $6,000 for damages. a pair of whales wandered into the san francisco bay. it happened and they are protected by the marine protection act. both are warned to not do anything to them that may separate the calf from the mother. >> if it does not have the mother to nurse on, that calf

will die because it is utterly despend dan on its mother. -- dependant on its mother. they think they were pausing for a rest. sal will safely get you to where you need to go but it is a miss busy morning. >> it is a busy morning and we are looking at 80 westbound as we come through the mcarthur maze, there are no major problems but it is crowded and we are getting to the peak of the commute and no major problems this morning. it looks like, as a matter of fact if we can get the guys in the control room -- there we go, these are live pictures chopper 2. i was just alerted the fire has flared back up in this building and it makes sense because i heard firefighters screaming over the radio to recharge the lines

which means they want more water in the hoses. they stopped the aerial attack as i heard on police radios but it looks like they will recharge the lines. you saw the pictures from behind the crews and i would really be surprised if they got out safely. obviously this fire is not out. let's look at 80 westbound as you head out to the mcarthur maze, traffic is looking okay if you are driving on 08 after richmond -- 80 after richmond, let's go to steve. i want to address this really quickly if i could. well almost everybody has a smart phone but if you have a

weather app, it may say flurries. it's clear out there but for whatever reason there is a bug in the system it says flurries. it will be upper 60s to near 70 degrees. mt. diablo towards the reservior near 25 but that's about it. things seem to be much calmer and most observations say that as well. temperatures now yesterday with a north wind did hit 70. concord 3 degrees warmer and 64 to 70 degrees. bethel island 33, stamford 34, vallejo 38 and novato is at 32. a lot of 30s, santa rosa, napa, fairfield, concord and clear by the way. redwood city, a little

northeast, just a him the, everything seems to be less than 5 to 010 miles per hour. that system right there just disappeared. it continues to say up and over. storm track is dipping but between now and saturday, everything is good to go. low 70s and everything is close brentwood 71, palo alto pacifica and daily city 70s. new concerns over the nuclear program, the fears felt around the world and the un statement that will be released later today coming up. tackling this apartment fire is a challenge, we will tell you what it is coming up.

the 808 split looks good, -- 880 split looks good, a fire in downtown san francisco, we will tell you where the hot spots are.

. welcome back, our coverage continues, an early morning fire, tara moriarty is out there on the scene where firefighters are very busy,

what is going on now tara? >> reporter: they were tackling this fire for more than two hours and they have been trying to douse these flames. if you look behind me you can see the flames at the top of the roof. we snuck around the backside of the building and got a firsthand look at what firefighters are up against. the big danger the deputy chief tells us the building is now in danger of collapsing. if this building falls firefighters are worried it could shootout debris to buildings nearby. they have had a hard time getting to certain spots because head to fight it from the latter and -- ladder and the ground. it is affecting surrounding

apartments as well. >> it is very scary and everybody was shocked, my three- year-old kid was shocked to wake up and to come out and rush and driving the car things falling on you, it was like really scary. >> reporter: now many of the evacuees are students who saw the orange glow of the flames, they grabbed their laptops and cell phones and ran out the door. they are helping those displaced find a place to stay. they will warmup with coffee and hot chocolate. there are 30 firefighters on the scene and you can still see flames that keep shooting up. we saw an incredible amount of water on the backside, firefighters are having to stay on top of it this morning. tara moriarty ktvu channel 2 morning news.

>> tara, thank you. here is another quick look at the top stories we are following. a house fire in mill valley. it's still too early to know the cause but firefighters say it started on the first floor of the house now this home was gutted with a woman who was inside at the time was not hurt. two area bay cemeteries have been missmarked more than 100 gravesites there. later today a congressional community will hold a hearing into those mistakes at the golden gate san bruno and san francisco cemetery. expressing new concerns about iran's nuclear program. they will issue a statement calling inspectors to return to tehran. they are worried about uranium

enrichment at underground facilities. this past tuesday iran proposed a new round of inspections in a move to ease tensions. apple up franked on their -- infringed on rights and they are warning not to sell any of the apple products. they will take all necessary steps to stop vendors from selling the i-pad. they will go through criminal fights to stop them from using it. time now 6:48 despite a flood of complaint, a plan to add new parking matters in -- parking meters and they are separate from another proposal to install in the eastern part

of the city. >> this costs near the giants ballpark and officials are not saying how many parking meters will be added or when they will be installed. >> sal, have you heard from some people on that? >> i'm sure we will. any timing is happens with parking -- especially from san francisco, my e-mail or twitter account, we get a lot of things mentioned. good morning everybody. you can always find me on twitter, i have a twitter account. let's look at the bay bridge plaza, no major problems getting into the city but also the morning commute is not bad on the east shore freeway. on 880, it is a little crowded but not too bad here.

i mentioned westbound 80 which is still slow through richmond. between hayward and richmond city, we are getting a little bit of a slow down as the morning wears on. let's go to steve. we have sunshine, a beautiful day, a little breeze but nothing compared to the past two days and temperatures will be moving out. not too bad, we have starting out with 30s and a couple of upper 20s but much calmer conditions and in mt. diablo. very dry air mass, we might need chap stick since there is no moisture in the area. napa is in there, that is at the airport. 32 san rafael, also livermore

and san jose, easterly breeze but generally less than 10 miles per hour so we don't have to worry. it will be back, but it will be back on saturday. until then lots of sunshine sunny for everybody, a lighter breeze for everybody, dry pattern, possibility of some things changing, unfortunately models are not in sink. sunshine today, nice to warm, upper 60s to lower 70s, more of the same, does look like clouds roll in and maybe some rain to the north as we head to monday, dave pain? for the first time jobless benefits have hit a high, up 80,000 from the week before but analysts say it is a low enough number to indicate employers

are creating enough jobs to suggest the job market is actually improving. now tomorrow the labor department releases the whole jobless rate for the area from february. a tragedy from the golden gate bridge. and tonight there will be a party, vying to become the next american idol. and the judge's reaction to the performance... good morning, this fire in berkeley continues to burn and in dwight way, we will tell you what the implications are for the area. ♪

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. a live look, apple stock is up and the release helped boost at&t and verizon as well. a grim new data tied to the golden gate bridge, 37 people committed suicide by jumping off the golden gate bridge last year. that is a slight increase over

the past couple of years. the study was commissioned by a group that wants a barrier over the bridge. officials are trying to raise the $45 million needed to build that suicide barrier. the board approved the project four years ago. napa sheriff's office said a man about to be evicted set his house on fire. they identified him as reagan st. john in his 60s. the apartment filled with smoke and shotgun shells were strewn across the floor. he was transferred to the burn unit and he is now listed in stable condition. san jose blew away viewers

with the classic master blaster. >> he definitely impressed the judges at last night's american idol performance. the 17-year-old was in perfect rhythm. jennifer lopez liked it a lot and with the trademark hair, steven tyler said he has a different rhythm and he always loved it. tune in to american idol at 8:00 tonight. we will talk live with the contestants tomorrow, find out who gets putted. hopefully it's not deon draw. >> traffic is getting busy, still looking good, you can still get your shot into oakland before it gets busy, when you get to the toll plaza, there is a little bit of a

backup, coming up on mornings on 2, let's go to steve. mild, warm, not as windy, we will have upper 60s to lower 70s, we will have more coming up on mornings on 2. we will have live team coverage, big news from berkeley, that huge fire, we have new video and new information on it, we will be right back. the solution: miracle-gro garden soil. the perfect mix of rich, organic ingredients, and miracle-gro plant food. just mix it in. and turn bad soil into great soil. helps plants grow twice as big. instead of holding 'em back, they'll leap ahead. miracle-gro garden soil. start right. finish big. at toyota's #1 for everyone sales event. why? 'cause people know toyota's the best. toyota has the most fuel-efficient and longest lasting vehicles of any full-line automaker.

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